DThe grief didn’t last too long. It was a good two hours ago that the German players received their silver medals after losing the final at the Ice Hockey World Championships when they gradually trundled into a bar in downtown Tampere. But that should have had little to do with frustration drinking. More like one last evening of a group that will probably never get together again. In ice hockey, a world championship is played every twelve months, so the line-up changes every year, depending on who has the time and inclination.
The class of 2023 initially aroused few expectations, as Captain Moritz Müller recalled at the weekend: “In the run-up, the belief in us from home wasn’t that great.” He could have said that maliciously, but he was sober and was right with it. Who would have thought that this emergency squad (15 cancellations!) with an allegedly antiquated coach like Harold Kreis would win the first German World Cup medal in 70 years? That there would be a World Cup final with German participation for the first time since 1930? And that the team earns it and doesn’t just work for it?
